Violent offender jailed for repeat escapes

A violent criminal who escaped from custody twice within three weeks has been jailed for at least 14 years.

Drew Claude Griffiths, 34, escaped from a prison van at the front of the Parole Board's Flinders Street office in central Adelaide in March last year.

He committed various offences while on the run, including robbing a firearms shop at suburban Prospect armed with a knife.

Griffiths also tried to rob a jeweller at Walkerville while armed with a gun.

He suffered groin injuries during his arrest two days later, after a seven-hour stand-off with police at Para Vista.

Griffiths was hit by a police stun grenade.

A fortnight later Griffiths escaped despite being shackled to a bed at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, stabbed a guard with a pencil wrapped in foil and tried to hijack a car.

Judge Rosemary Davey declined to sentence Griffiths as a serious repeat offender, despite having reservations about his prospects of rehabilitation and having considered his likelihood of re-offending.

"Your intelligence and communication skills are in contrast to your offending history. You have a bad criminal history," she told Griffiths.

"You say you are determined to stay away from drugs and are now in a committed and supportive relationship. I have some reservations about whether you will maintain your current determination."

She said Griffiths' offending started just five days after his release from a New South Wales prison in August 2010 when he resisted police and caused property damage as officers tried to execute a parole warrant.

Within four months, Griffiths held up a Brahma Lodge pharmacy while armed with a gun and committed assaults and other robberies.

Judge Davey said Griffiths resumed his drug use and communicated with his criminal contacts.

"You describe your behaviour upon your release as aggressive and that you were like a wild animal," she said.

Judge Davey said Griffiths was arrested again, but in March 2011 kicked open the doors of a prison van after a Parole Board hearing and stole a car in Wakefield Street in the city, before committing a series of terrifying offences.

"Your behaviour was chaotic and disorganised but also very dangerous," she said.

Judge Davey said had it not been for his guilty pleas to all of his offences, she would have sentenced Griffiths to 20 years in prison.

Instead she jailed him for 15 years, as well as the three years and two months of his unexpired parole.

She set a non-parole period of 14 years and ordered Griffiths be prevented from obtaining a driver's licence for three years after his release.